This is another game I am willing to come back to again later, because it is one of those games that I really WANT to love. Especially seeing how much other people love it, I WANT to love it just as much as them. No one likes feeling like they wasted their money on a game they were highly excited to play.

After playing for about 2.6 hours (at the time of writing), I think I must agree with one of the top negative reviews. The review I am talking about is a review that states that the controls "just FEEL unresponsive". Whenever someone makes a statement about the controls, I see a lot of fans ask if that person used a controller. Yes, I used a controller, and I still feel like the controls just FELT unresponsive.

You may notice I keep putting an emphasis on how it "FEELS unresponsive", rather than it IS unresponsive. Allow me to explain: what I am referring to directly is the dash mechanic, and not really any other combat mechanic. Many people have also complained about the shooting, but that seemed fine for me on controller. What makes the dash mechanic FEEL unresponsive is that you must time your dashes just right or you will stop dashing and literally get dog-piled by all the nearby enemies.

I am not sure exactly what the timing is on those dashes, but I think it was within either 1/4th or 1/2th of a second. To me, this was far too punishing for the horrible crime of "just not being absolutely perfect always". The combat relies VERY strongly on the dash mechanic, and even the "double dash" upgrade did not seem to offer a very substantial relief for this timing issue. So, when pressing the button for dash, it would FEEL unresponsive, even though it would respond perfectly if I hit the button with absolute precision. This created the illusion of janky and unresponsive controls, because I am just not THAT perfect at hitting the button at the exact right time always.

When not in combat, I could get the timing well. However, in the middle of combat there is so much going on that it gets difficult to time the dashes with the precision required. Many times, in combat, I would do very well and get the timing right and it would feel great. However, there is only so often you can die from missing the timing just once in combat before you start to feel frustrated. As another top-rated negative view stated: it just FEELS more frustrating than it does difficult.

2/5
To be clear, I wouldn't rank myself as an "expert gamer", but I do consider myself a little above average. I am at least good enough at these types of games where I purposely seek out the "difficult" tag from time to time. Everything else I loved about the game, even the common complaints; such as the vague story and difficult secrets. Personally, I loved how the story was done and the secrets amused me well. However, I cannot give this game a good recommendation because I just feel like the absolute precision required for the dash mechanic is a little too punishing for my tastes.